Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel — John Locke — John Shaqi
Nasby in Exile: or, Six Months of Travel in England, Ireland, Scotland, France, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, with many things not of travel
John Locke · en
"They say all these ships are built with water-tight compartments. Sho!
Stave in one part of the ship and it must go down. What happened to the
'City of Boston?' Never heard of. 'City of Paris?' Lost half her
passengers. But we must take our chances if we will travel."
And this to a lot of people who had never been at sea before, with an
ugly wind blowing and a tremendous sea on. Imagine the frame of mind he
left his auditors in, and he made it his business, day after day, to
regale the very timid ones with harrowing histories of shipwrecks and
disasters at sea till their blood would run cold.
Some night this old raven will be lost overboard, but there will be
others just like him to take his place. Nature duplicates her
monstrosities as well as her good things.
[Illustration: LEMUEL TIBBITTS, FROM NEAR OSHKOSH, WISCONSIN, WRITING A
LETTER TO HIS MOTHER.]
Among the passengers was a young man from Oshkosh, Wisconsin, named
Tibbitts. He was an excellent young man, of his kind, and he very soon
acquired the reputation, which he deserved, of being the very best poker
player on the ship. He was uneasy till a game was organized in the
morning, and he growled ferociously when the lights were turned down at
twelve at night. He was impatient with slow players, because, as he
said, all the time they wasted was so much loss to him. He could drink
more Scotch whisky than any one on the ship, and he was the pet of the
entire crew, for his hand was always in his pocket. He ruined the rest
of the passengers by his reckless liberality. His father was a rich
Wisconsin farmer, and this was his first experience in travel.
What time he could spare from poker and his meals, was devoted to
writing a letter to his mother, for whom the scape-grace did seem to
have a great deal of respect and a very considerable amount of love. His
letter was finished the day before we made Queenstown, so that he could
mail it from there. He read it to me. The sentences in parenthesis were
his comments:--
ON BOARD THE CITY OF RICHMOND, }
NEAR QUEENSTOWN, May 23, 1881. }